I'll need some cheap sockets, 13A, 2-gang, switched. Is there anything I should look out for?
Cheapest dso far:
Just check the electrical connections. You could save pence in price but then spend an extra 10 minutes per socket fixing them because of badly placed wire terminals or even worse poor quality screw terminals.
I think their sockets are OK but avoid CED / Axiom surface backboxes from Toolstation. They're made of thick unbreakable plastic so it's almost impossible to work the knockouts, and when they do break you end up shattering half the box as well. It took me five boxes to fit a single one without shattering it. I 'upgraded' to a different brand (I think it was 'Click') and didn't have a single one wasted.
Theo
I'd check the terminals, particularly if you have any spurs. Some of them are pretty skimpy for 3 x 2.5mm.
This is where a Fein comes in useful!
Many of the cheaper ones are only single pole switched, if that matters.
TLC Telco brand £1.50 each inc VAT, in boxes of 10.
Owain
True of cheaper ones from "name" brands (e.g. MK and Crabtree) not just "own brand" and budget brands.
The Schneider / GET Ultimate ones are my favourite - nice quality, well marked terminals that have good capacity and are easy to wire:
All the "MK Logic Plus" switched outlets I can see are DP.
If you go down to the "MK Base" range they do offer SP as well as DP. From CEF they're only 5p cheaper on 2-gang, but 15p cheaper on 2-gang ... go figure!
See how much spare cable you have in the back box, and how deep the back box is. Then look at the terminal positioning on the sockets.
I've had horribly fiddly jobs due to poor terminal placement and short wires in the back box. Resulting in having to connect the wires up with the socket about 1cm away from the back box because there was not enough depth in the box to crimp on extra wire.
It was like keyhole surgery, and I would have paid a bit more for something with better terminal placement.
Well I thought of referring to "cheapest" rather than "cheaper" but didn't - and don't - know if it is true that only the cheapest in each brand is SP.
With TLC the price differential is marked: around 50p for both MK base and Crabtree.
I use the metal burrs on a Dremel, when the box material is that brittle because of too much filler, abrasive tools work well.
The last time I encountered poor quality screw terminals was with MK :-)
However, the customer service was amazing. It was a double Schuko socket. The retailer had none left so I contacted MK. They had none in the UK and airfreighted one in from Malaysia. They wanted a statement of intended use as it is non-standard. I drafted my own statement, which they accepted. They then couriered the socket to my address.
What is 'MK Base'? Are they made in Malaysia instead of England to keep the cost down?
MK's cheapo offering
Probably, I thought they shut their UK factory a couple of years ago, but it looks like it was reprieved
What makes you think that? Was it not the one in Wales that closed:
When I rewired TMH's daughters house Dave offered to screw the sockets back after I had second fixed them. He was amazed that he could not screw the sockets back faster than I could second fix them - and I was not using the sockets in that link.
It was probably the 6 gang light switch that he appreciated most. Magicians have to memorise a lot of stuff so he asked me how I could do a 6g light switch with no marking on the cables after I had stripped them back
It is quite a lot, isn't it? :)
More extraordinary is that first picture. Either they have photo-shopped it, or they produced a very short length of rather special cable (with two live cores).
But if you were only doing a few you'd be quids in compared with buying a torque screwdriver
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